CAAFlog Has Moved

As the Z-Man points out below, we are now at our new home http://www.caaflog.com/. The comments on this site are now closed so reset your Favorites and change your links. We can't make you go to the new site automatically so just click on the link. See you on CAAFlog.com.

New Home for CAAFlog

CAAFlog can now be found at: www.caaflog.com

CAAFlog's RSS feed can be found at: http://www.caaflog.com/?feed=rss2

You may not see the new site immediately (before Thursday morning, possibly midday) because the change takes some time to propagate across the internet.

CAAF News: which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?

The bad news: CAAF today issued an order changing the deadlines for filing supps. Starting on 1 September, supps will be due in conjunction with the petition where the petition is filed by counsel and 20 days after filing of the petition if filed by the accused. In those rare instances where appellate government counsel file an answer to the supp instead of a 10-day letter, the answer will be due in 20 days. I predict a bumper crop of CAAF petitions filed on 31 August.

The good news: Also starting on 1 September, CAAF will allow electronic filing of petitions for grant of review filed by counsel, supps, answers, and motions about supps and answers.

CAAF issues opinion on IAC claim

CAAF has released its opinion in United States v. Mazza, __ M.J. ___, No. 09-0032 (C.A.A.F. July 15, 2009). In a unanimous opinion by Judge Stucky, the court rejects an IAC claim, affirming NMCCA's ruling in the case.

More later.

British Forces Face Same Challenges

As we here in the States are debating the use of courts-martial for detainees from Gitmo, courts-martial for detainee mistreatment and killings, and what to do about "enhanced interrogation" techniques and those that used them, the Brits are facing similar issues. As reported in many outlets, including here and here, the British military has opened an inquiry into the beating death of an Iraqi prisoner (Baha Mousa) in 2003. According to reports the man died of beatings while in custody and one British soldier has already been court-martialed for the incident.

Other issues of national security versus fact finding are arising in the investigation, see report here, with the British MoD refusing to turn over some information to the Inquiry.

An interesting footnote to the story, " The Ministry of Defence has already agreed to pay a total of £3million in compensation to Mr Mousa's family and other detainees who were abused."

Upgrades

Readers-

In the way of an introduction, I'm a young Marine Judge Advocate brought aboard to help with some technological upgrades (discussed here and here), in my personal capacity of course. The switch to the new servers should happen soon - this week, with luck - and will allow CAAFlog to present the full spectrum of commentary, analysis, and information in one place. It also looks pretty good, though some would say my sense of style leaves something to be desired.

We're working to ensure a minimal loss of content, but a guy like me really embraces the "avoid zero defects" mentality. Posts and comments will transfer (already have), and everything else will remain accessible (we hope, and anything not available in other places will be duplicated). Email is unchanged. The RSS url might change, so subscribers please stay alert.

All said, the technology is just window dressing for the posts and the comments. At the transition there I will solicit feedback on the changes. Be brutal.

June Army Lawyer online

The June issue of the Army Lawyer is now available online here. Almost half the issue is devoted to Army DAD own MAJ Grace M. W. Gallagher's article, Don't Panic! Rehearings and DuBays Are Not the End of the World, Army Law., June 2009, at 1.

Also of potential interest to military justice wonks is Douglas A. Dribben's article, Damage to Rental Cars, Army Law., June 2009, at 43.

The end is near

As I mentioned last week, we will soon be moving our operations over to caaflog.com. My understanding is that all of our previous blog posts will still be accessible, but all of the documents that are currently on caaflog.com will disappear. We're planning to take just a few of those docs over to our new site. So if you want a copy of any document that's on caaflog.com now, please download it in the next 48 hours.

SG's time to reply to Rodriguez cert petition extended

The Supremes have extended the deadline for the SG to file a response to the Rodriguez cert petition, No. 08-1465, which we discussed here, until 4 August. The SG initially waived the United States' right to respond to the cert petition (as the SG routinely does in response to military justice cert petitions), but the Supremes called for a response, as we noted here.

This week in military justice -- 12 July 2009 edition

This week at the Supremes: There are no anticipated military justice developments at the Supremes this week.

This week at CAAF: CAAF has completed oral arguments for the term. By my count, seven cases argued this term have yet to be decided: Loving, Smead (which resulted in a post-argument order directing additional briefing), Matthews, Mazza, Bush, Ashby, and Schweitzer.

This week at the CCAs: None of the four CCAs' oral argument calendars lists an argument for this week.